Actually Philip, FMJ is great movie but in training part only. In combat part, it went into drain hole because they used wrong equipment. Marine Corps didn't wear 3/4 collar flak vest because those were issued to Army or AF only and in 1967. USMC weren't issued M1956 webgear. They should've used M1955 flak vest with M1961 web gear.

Don't get me wrong, I love this movie but but its accurately ticked me off.

1stDivVet wrote:That helicopter is a Sikorsky H-34 Choctaw, not a Westland Wessex http://richard-seaman.com/Wallpaper/Aircraft/Helicopters/American/H34Diving.jpg

The helicopter in your picture would be the correct one. But not that in the movie. It's the licence produced H-34 in Great Britain with a jet engine.http://www.flugzeuginfo.net/acimages/wessexhc2_kp.jpg

I think that the book the movie is based on (The Short Timers) is better, but I loved the movie, too.

I know all of GySgt Hartman's lines in that movie. But my favourite part is when Rafter Man and Joker are riding in the chopper with the crazy door gunner...his dialogue throughout that scene just cracks me up.

zvez wrote:I thought it was a great flick too, warts and all. And certainly R. Lee Ermey's acting debut was great.

Chris

Actually,R.Lee's acting debut was years previous. If I am not mistaken, his first film was "The Boys in Company C", He was also in "Apocolypse Now" (small part-played a Air Cav officer and doubled as a technical advisor)and,one of my favorite,but almost forgotten movies,"The siege of firebase Gloria". He was also in a bunch of other movies,TV shows ect,where he diddnt play the sterio-typical "D.I./Marine/Military type".

I have alsways liked him,and "Full Metal Jacket" was a damn good movie.If you havent seen "The siege of Firebase Gloria", make sure you do-if you like military movies,you will be doing yourself a favor:)

zvez wrote:I thought it was a great flick too, warts and all. And certainly R. Lee Ermey's acting debut was great.

Chris

Actually,R.Lee's acting debut was years previous. If I am not mistaken, his first film was "The Boys in Company C", He was also in "Apocolypse Now" (small part-played a Air Cav officer and doubled as a technical advisor)and,one of my favorite,but almost forgotten movies,"The siege of firebase Gloria". He was also in a bunch of other movies,TV shows ect,where he diddnt play the sterio-typical "D.I./Marine/Military type".

I have alsways liked him,and "Full Metal Jacket" was a damn good movie.If you havent seen "The siege of Firebase Gloria", make sure you do-if you like military movies,you will be doing yourself a favor:)

Siege at Firebase Gloria and 84 Charlie Mopic are two of my favorite Vietnam movies...along with Apocalypse Now.

Camo_fiend wrote:But my favourite part is when Rafter Man and Joker are riding in the chopper with the crazy door gunner...his dialogue throughout that scene just cracks me up.

You should read 'Dispatches' by Michael Herr - that door gunner scene is lifted word for word from there. Michael Herr was also responsible for writing Capt. Willard's voiceover from 'Apocalypse Now'. A lot of the surrealist 'flavour' of 'Apocalypse Now' is reflected in 'Dispatches'.

Originally actor Bill McKinney (The Green Mile) was tapped for the role of GySgt Hartman. McKinney was a familiar face in many of Clint Eastwood's films but his most famous role was that of the hillbilly in the infamous "squeal like a pig" scene from Deliverance. Kubrick instead cast R. Lee Ermey, who was originally hired as a technical advisor, because Kubrick was reportedly "afraid to meet the mountain man from Deliverance."